Flexible Billing

We offer contingency-fee and billable fee options (and hybrids with flexible terms). The majority of our work is contingency-fee based, where we share the financial risks with our client, working together as partners. Our size and flexibility allows us to offer an array of more flexible options such as creative fee options – from traditional hourly services to contingency fee, to fixed or flat fee, and mixed or “hybrid” fee options.

Contingency Fee Philosophy

We routinely handle cases for plaintiffs on a contingency-fee (or percentage) basis where we only get paid if you recover. We like having “skin” in the game on the cases we handle and are happy to put our money (or time) where our mouth is when we take on cases.

Another thing that sets Edleson & Hindman apart is the firm’s willingness to handle business disputes on a contingency-fee basis. Large companies have hired us to pursue business litigation on their behalf on a contingency-fee basis, recognizing the sound economic sense of having the attorneys bear the risk of loss with respect to attorney time. Few law firms offer this unique business model.

Hourly Fee Philosophy

On hourly engagements, we recognize legal fees are an important part of whether a dispute is handled in a satisfactory manner. In our view, a client does not win if the attorneys’ fees spent “winning” are excessive (e.g., it costs more to win than to lose). For this reason, we work closely with our clients to ensure that we handle each case efficiently with an eye toward the bottom line.

Because of our extensive trial experience, we are willing and able to keep billed hourly fees manageable.  On an hourly fee basis, if you want to have your day in court and not be blackmailed into settlement, then with your approval we can limit our approach on all the pretrial fighting, avoid all but what is absolutely necessary, and just go to court. Trial does not scare us. We focus on providing cost-effective representation, keeping in mind that “winning” is not a victory if the fees exceed the amount at stake.

Flex Fee Philosophy

The firm offers traditional hourly fees as well as fixed, sliding scale, and flat-fee options. Because of our size, we are flexible and open to new and creative fee ideas. If together we can think of a fee approach that is fair and reasonable, nothing but our imagination limits us.

Why “Less is More”

Sometimes bigger is better, but when it comes to handling a lawsuit, smarter is better.

Hands-on attention, with direct and extensive work by the attorney in charge, is one key to winning a lawsuit. Teams of attorneys lead to lack of accountability and knowledge by any one attorney.

By accepting only a few cases at a time, we can and do handle mid and large size disputes. Our partners work as a team, with no lower level and less experienced associate attorneys; in other words, we do not delegate work to others but do it ourselves.

This approach, we believe, clearly leads to better and more predictable results, as well as lower bills because time is not wasted by team meetings or by multiple attorneys and other staff reading and re-reading the same paperwork.

Our Rigorous Case Selection Process

We handle only a few cases at any one time, and we work as a team on most all of our cases with our partners very actively involved at every stage.

For every case we accept, we turn down approximately fifty cases. Why? We have the luxury of taking only cases where we believe we are spending our time working for honest people who deserve to win. We work very hard and do not like to spend our time representing people or companies we believe deserve to lose. Our thinking is that everyone is entitled to an attorney, but not everyone is entitled to us. This means when we go to court we make arguments we believe in, and as a result our local judges know this. This gives us credibility with courts and opposing attorneys.

We carefully screen all potential cases at the beginning. Because we are prepared to take every case we accept all the way to trial, we only accept cases we feel are meritorious for clients we like. Also, you will not hear us cave in at the last minute prior to trial, or start changing our advice to you.

If you are considering a contingency fee arrangement, we typically will evaluate your case without charge. We will give you straightforward and honest feedback regardless of whether we take the case. We provide prospective clients with feedback on whether the case has merit, the relative strengths and weaknesses of the potential case, and what the likely award might be.

Once a case makes it through our rigorous screening process and we accept the engagement, we form a tight-knit team with the client. We involve our clients in all important decisions and personally guide our clients through the litigation process.